Does This Strange Weather Bubble In Pennsylvania Really Exist?
A lot of people reflect fondly upon childhood, feeling as though those adolescent years took place in a magical bubble where time seemingly stood still and sunshine always prevailed. According to WHYY, if your childhood took place in a region known as Delaware County, Pennsylvania — Delco for short — perhaps you were right.
Many credit Kate Winslet and the Saturday Night Live crew with making this humble little area famous. After all, it was the television show Mare of Easttown and the hilarious spoof of that show that brought attention to Delco, PA to begin with. Now, in 2021, millions are aware of this tiny corner of the world where people have an affinity for Wawa hoagies (via People) and a unique way of pronouncing words like daughter (via Saturday Night Live on YouTube).
Mare of Easttown depicts a Delco that is wrought with murder mysteries, where danger lurks in the shadows. But in real life, something equally mysterious is said to be happening through a force that is both powerful and invisible.
Is it protected by an invisible bubble that freezes storms and maybe even time?
According to WHYY, reporters and local social media commentators, the legend of "The Delco Bubble" first emerged in the mid-'90s shortly before or after the notorious Blizzard of '96. Word of Delaware County falling under the protection of an invisible but powerful weather bubble began to circulate as this region seemed to always miss the brunt of superstorms. To make matters that much more perplexing, storms were said to split up as soon as they reached the skies of Delaware County, only to converge again as they blew past county limits. Some say the freezing was not just of weather, but also of time itself.
Legend has it that weather was a common theme at the old Darby firehouse, where stories of the Delco Bubble possessed an almost Paul Bunyan-like quality, in that they were larger than life. According to experts, whether the Delco Bubble is fact or fiction remains largely a "matter of perspective" (via Delco Today). Either way, it has created a modern-day Facebook fable worth passing around a campfire or telling by candlelight during a thunderstorm.
Cheers to everyone reading this who believes their childhood took place in a mysterious bubble where the sun was always shining and time seemed to stand still. How wacky would it be if that were true?